


Home Made Chocolate

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-13 23:50:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14758643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: The story of how Idun began making her own chocolate.





	Home Made Chocolate

Idun Goldspur frowned as she stood in the ‘holiday’ section of the Jorvik City supermarket. Normally, at this time of year, the shelves would be stacked with all sorts of delicious, chocolatey treats, Easter eggs and chocolate bunnies and chocolate chickens and even some other chocolate animals. She had also seen a manure-shaped piece of chocolate, which had given her a good laugh until she’d considered that it might lead her two youngest to eat the real thing. She’d quickly stopped laughing after that discovery.

The heavy sound of a large trolley being wheeled down the aisle suddenly reached Idun’s ears, and she spun around quickly. Her eyes speared the thin form of a teenage boy pushing the trolley, which was laden with other confections but not one single Easter egg. He gulped as the large blonde woman strode up to him, the muscles of her arm standing out as she gripped the shopping basket tightly.

“Excuse me,” said Idun, her pleasant voice at odds with the rest of her. “Do you happen to know if there are any Easter eggs left in stock? I am shopping for my quite sizable family, and would very much like to procure Easter gifts for all of them. Should you fail to deliver the goods, you will suffer the WRATH OF GOLDSPUR!” The boy cringed away from her, giving a little cry.

“I-I’m sorry, m-m-miss,” said the boy, trembling all over. “We, uh, we actually ran out of them yesterday.”

“Aren’t there any in the store room?” asked Idun, back to sounding sweet. The boy didn’t stop trembling, though.

“Uh, I can go and check for you if you like, ma’am,” said the boy. He ran off in the direction of the store room after Idun nodded. Idun snorted a laugh. That boy could try out for the Olympics, running like that.

Idun waited, checking her watch as she did so. Five minutes passed, then ten, then twenty, finally, thirty minutes had passed and the boy had still not returned.

“Typical,” said Idun with a sigh. “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” And so, marching to the back of the store, Idun headed into the store room, looking around to see if she could spot any Easter eggs.

The shelves in the store room were piled high with boxes of cereal, coffee sachets, and all manner of other goods that she’d shopped for in the past. But no Easter eggs. Well, that made sense, maybe the Easter eggs were being kept somewhere cooler. She knew that most stores had cool rooms for keeping the food that needed to be kept cold.

Seeing a sign, Idun headed into the cool room, passing through strips of plastic that dragged heavily over her arms and hair. It was chilly in here, and she shivered slightly. But she had to continue, she had to find the special treats for her family. After all, this was the last place that she could try, she’d tried every other avenue. Perhaps she shouldn’t have left the shopping so late, but there were very few sitters who could handle the twins and Louisa wasn’t answering her phone. So Idun hadn’t had time to go shopping for Easter eggs, at least, not in such a way that would prevent the twins from finding out and eating all of them the second she got home with them. They’d done that in the past, and had been punished by not receiving any Easter eggs the following year. They still hadn’t learned their lesson, though, because Angus had given them Easter eggs anyway. That darned old fool.

“Excuse me, miss, customers aren’t allowed to be in here,” said a voice. Idun turned towards it and found a rather severe-looking older man with grey hair wearing a grey suit. He had his arms crossed in front of him and a frown on his face. Idun trusted him immediately.

“Well, your employee didn’t report back to me on the Easter eggs so I had to do it myself,” said Idun. “By the way, I couldn’t find any.”

“Yes, that is because we ran out yesterday, as my employee told you,” said the man. “He also reported that you threatened him? But I am sure that it was only a misunderstanding.”

“Oh, yes, I certainly threatened him,” said Idun with a chuckle. “People always work better when you put the fear of Goldspur into them, I’ve found.”

“Yes, well,” said the man. “I am going to have to ask you to leave, madam.” Idun scowled at him.

“I’m not leaving without Easter eggs for my family,” said Idun, folding her arms across her sizeable bosom and staring right back at the man.

“Are the Easter eggs really necessary?” asked the man. “Could you not instead give them marshmallows or other treats? There are also non-Easter chocolates available in the store.”

“They can get non-Easter chocolate anytime,” said Idun. “What is the point of buying Easter treats if it is not in festive shapes?”

“Then perhaps you could make your own?” the man suggested. “I am certain that a strong woman like you who clearly cares for the holiday could make her own Easter treats.”

“How?” asked Idun. “Do you sell kits for making them, as you sell kits for making tacos or beer?”

“We do have moulds,” said the man. “They are all in the kitchen section, I will escort you there personally.” Idun didn’t care if the man was only doing this to get her out of the place, she was just glad that finally someone around here was being useful.

The man led Idun out of the store room and past a few aisles until they reached one which, according to the sign, had kitchen-ware in it. The man turned in to this aisle, walking down it until he stopped in front of a section of the shelf devoted entirely to crafting chocolate.

“There you go,” said the man, gesturing to it. “Everything that you need to make the perfect chocolate treats. There’s also cooking chocolate or, if you feel like being adventurous, you could make your own chocolate.”

“Make my own chocolate, huh?” said Idun, raising an eyebrow and putting her fingers to her chin in thought. “Now, that might be quite the lucrative business, especially around Valentine’s Day. I could grow some cocoa plants, harvest the beans, prepare them, crush them, make the cocoa powder, mix it with the sugar and milk and other ingredients…”

“Well, we unfortunately don’t sell cocoa beans or cocoa plants here, just the powder,” said the man. “However, I’m sure that the local garden centre will be able to help you out with your inquiry. Or perhaps the farm centre. I must confess, I don’t know very much about farming.”

“Huh, I can see that,” said Idun. “A farmer wouldn’t employ such wimpy little boys.” The man winced but said nothing, clearly having some self-preservation instincts.

Idun made her purchases and returned home, pleased with the idea that the man had given her. She was considerably less pleased at the way that the mall staff had escorted her off of the premises after she’d left the store, but it would be fine, surely. If she was banned from here, she would simply have another job to give to her children or husband.

In the kitchen, Idun put away her other groceries but left out the cooking chocolate and the moulds. After washing the moulds, Idun melted the cooking chocolate over a saucepan, carefully following the recipe that she’d found online. Thanks in large part to herself, GED had shared their extremely fast internet connection with her so Joogle loaded like a breeze. She was even able to load up a few videos on Jortube.

Finally, the chocolate melted, and Idun poured it carefully into the moulds, making sure that it was neither too thin nor too thick. That done, she placed the moulds into the fridge so that the chocolate would set. Once that was done, she could melt the edges and join the two halves of each egg together. She also had a few smaller eggs, of course, to hide around the farm for the annual egg hunt. Most farmers painted chicken eggs, but the Goldspurs had no chickens and besides, the twins (and Isolde, though she denied it to her friends) loved to search for the eggs and then eat them. It was all part of the fun.

The kitchen door opened as Idun was stirring together her own chocolate. She froze for a moment, expecting it to be one of her sons or her daughter, but relaxed when it was only her husband’s familiar form that stepped inside.

“Wow, something smells good,” said Angus, sniffing the air. He picked up one of the cookbooks that Idun had also purchased, looking at the page that it was held open at with a wooden spoon.

“Hands off,” said Idun, brandishing a spatula at him. “I’m making Easter eggs.”

“Making them?” Angus repeated. “But there’s no dye or hollowed-out eggs or bowls of egg insides.”

“Not those eggs,” said Idun, a rare smile playing about her lips as she gently tapped him on the nose with the spoon that she’d been using to stir the chocolate. She swiped the chocolate off of his nose, smacking her lips. “Hmm. Not sweet enough. What do you think?” She held the spoon out to him, and Angus took it and tasted it. He made a strange face.

“It might make good dark chocolate,” said Angus. He liked it when Idun cooked, it brought out a rare soft and romantic side in her.

“Hmm, you’re right, I’ll remember that,” said Idun as she stirred some sugar into the mix. She tasted it again.

“So why are you making them yourself?” asked Angus. “I thought you said you were going to the store to buy some?”

“The store ran out of Easter eggs,” said Idun, making a face. “It was extremely disappointing, and I made my feelings on that well known.”

“I’m sure you did,” said Angus. He knew his wife, so he knew that he’d need to add a ‘going to the store’ chore to the chore board that they kept for their family.

“But the owner of the place was kind enough to suggest this idea to me before he kicked me out,” said Idun. “Just think, if I can master this, we will not only have a new item to sell at our farm stall and at the market, we’ll also be able to have my very own hand-made chocolate for Valentine’s Day and every Easter. It will save us money.” Being quite a prosperous farm selling some of the most expensive horses in Jorvik, the Goldspurs never wanted for money, but her father had always told her that it was good to save money if possible. Especially with some other places in Jorvik getting more desirable horses.

“That sounds like a great idea,” said Angus, smiling at his wife. He leaned in and gave her a kiss, Idun leaving a smear of chocolate on his cheek as she cupped his face. Angus felt it, though, and swiped it off with a smile. “Ooh, that tastes better. It tastes almost like the chocolate from the store.”

“Do you think they’ll notice that it tastes different?” asked Idun.

“I think they’re more likely to notice that they’re not wrapped in pretty foil,” said Angus.

“Ah, but you forget that I am always prepared,” said Idun, pulling open one of the kitchen drawers. Inside was a pile of shiny foil in various colours. She smiled proudly at her shocked husband. “I saved it from other years, and I bought some more at the store.”

“At least your frugal upbringing has some benefits,” said Angus with a chuckle.

“We’ll be entirely self-sufficient in no time,” said Idun. “Should the apocalypse come, we will be prepared.”

“Or, at the very least, at least we’ll have chocolate,” said Angus.


End file.
